MADRID (AP) 鈥� Catholic bishops and the Spanish government took another step Monday toward compensating victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted.
In January, to let have the final say in the church鈥檚 compensation of such victims. The government and Spain鈥檚 bishops signed paperwork Monday detailing how the new church-state reparation system, which takes effect April 15, would work.
The agreement, which envisages a one-year window for claims, marks a rare concession by the Catholic hierarchy. It’s aimed at resolving disagreements between the left-wing government and church authorities over reparations after victims criticized the church鈥檚 original in-house compensation proposal.
Archbishop Luis Arg眉ello, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, said the text will not include number amounts for the compensation that sexual abuse victims could receive.
鈥淲e wanted to exclude references to scales and quantities; that鈥檚 not what this is about,鈥� Arg眉ello said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e planned for the teams to start working on how to do it, but the text doesn鈥檛 establish a range or a specific amount.鈥�
While church authorities in many Western European countries have created compensation plans for abuse victims, either run by the church or independent experts, the Spanish process is unusual because of the involvement of the state itself in the process.
Justice Minister F茅lix Bola帽os on Monday said that the system would evaluate reparations case by case, based on factors like severity, the victim’s age and the recurrence of the abuse.
“Criteria are set to arrive at fair compensation, which should not be determined by a single figure,鈥� Bola帽os said.
In recent years, the once staunchly Catholic Spain has begun to reckon with a decades-long legacy of abuse by priests and cover-up by generations of bishops and religious superiors, mainly thanks to the initial reporting by newspaper El Pa铆s.
Spain鈥檚 Parliament tasked the country’s ombudsman to investigate and in 2023 the ombudsman delivered a that investigated 487 known cases of sexual abuse and included a survey that calculated the number of possible victims could reach the hundreds of thousands.
Spain鈥檚 bishops , saying its own investigation had uncovered 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. It said that most of the crimes had occurred before 1990 and that 60% of the aggressors were now dead.
Under the new agreement, victims can approach Spain鈥檚 Justice Ministry with their initial petition. The ministry will pass it on to the ombudsman, who will study it and propose a compensation package that the church鈥檚 committee will then assess.
If no agreement can be reached with the church and the victim, the case will go to a joint committee with representatives of the church, the ombudsman鈥檚 office and victims鈥� associations. If that committee can鈥檛 agree, the ombudsman鈥檚 decision will stand, Bola帽os said in January.
On Monday, Bola帽os called the agreement a world first in which 鈥渢he state has the final say and the church pays the reparations due to each victim.鈥�
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